Mark McClafferty | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Wilmington, Delaware, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Delaware |
| Occupation(s) | Film/Television Producer, Television writer Chairman of Spellbound Pictures Ltd, an Entertainment Production,Publishing & Distribution Company |
Mark McClafferty is an American film producer, television producer/writer, and Chairman of Spellbound Pictures.
Mark McClafferty was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended the Alexis I. Du Pont School in Greenville, Delaware and then the University of Delaware where he was elected as its Student Government President in 1970. It was at the university that Mark became a speaker for student rights and an advocate against the war in Vietnam. His reputation caught the attention of the Ad Hoc Committee of Members of the House of Representatives for the Policy in South East Asia who asked him to present his views before Congress on the Vietnam War. [1]
Mark was selected by Delaware Governor Russell W. Peterson to work for him as a Governor's intern assigned to The Family Court System in his final year at the university. After graduating from the university, Mark was hired by Gary Hart to work for Senator George McGovern early in the 1972 primary campaign. Mark continued working for McGovern, traveling to many of the primary states during his successful drive to gain the Democratic presidential nomination in Miami that year. At the convention, Mark was approached by future Senator Joseph R. Biden to return to Delaware and assist him in his first Senate Campaign as Campaign director.
In 1973, Mark traveled West to soon join the ABC network, first as manager and then as Director of Program Research. In three years, Mark moved into his first creative job in the motion picture and television industry at Paramount Pictures, working as Director of Creative Affairs for Miller/Milkus/Boyett Productions. [2] During his work at Paramount, Mark developed new programs and supervised ongoing hit shows such as Happy Days , Mork & Mindy , Laverne and Shirley , Angie and Bosom Buddies , Tom Hanks first venture in Hollywood. [3]
Moving back to ABC as a program executive, Mark was promoted to Director of Dramatic Programming for the network. Mark and his staff were responsible for supervising such shows as: Hart to Hart , Dynasty , Fantasy Island , Hotel , Hardcastle & McCormick and The Greatest American Hero . It was during this period, that Mark met producer Glen A. Larson and joined him at 20th Century Fox as the company's Executive Vice President and Producer. [3] The company had five TV's programs on the air, including The Fall Guy , Cover Up , and Magnum, P.I. and Trauma Center.
Mark was then recruited by Eddie Murphy to return to Paramount Pictures to join Eddie Murphy Television Productions as its president. [4] He served in this position for seven years. Under his direction the company sold eight network shows, [5] including CBS's The Royal Family , starring Redd Foxx and Della Reese, which Mark executive produced and wrote for; [6] What's Alan Watching? , which the television critics picked as the best Comedy Special of 1991. [7] Mark also produced the Best of Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live Video and the movie, The Kid Who Loved Christmas which starred Cicely Tyson, Charlie Murphy, Vanessa L. Williams, Ray Parker Jr., Ester Rolle and Sammy Davis, Jr. in his last movie. [8] [9]
In 1996, Mark and his partner, Pamela Edwards McClafferty, formed Spellbound Pictures Ltd., USA LLC and completed a $60,000,000.00, 12-picture deal with Ellipse/Canal “+, the French Entertainment giant to supply the United Artist Theatre Circuit with a steady flow of family friendly films. [10] Mark was named Chairman of the consortium. It was under this deal that Spellbound completed The Climb , which was released February 26, 1999.[ citation needed ]
The Climb won eight major film festival awards including Giffoni, Berlin (UNICEF AWARD), Houston and Montreal.[ citation needed ]The Climb has run on HBO, Showtime, Encore and Starz. [11] [12]
He was also executive producer of Katt Williams Live the successful Comedy Special/DVD Katt Williams Live now showing on Comedy Central.
Spellbound Pictures Ltd. currently has released its first novel "Blue" author Walter Jones. The musical, Artland, (Music by legendary Stanley Clarke, Book & Lyrics by Bestselling novelist, Pamela Edwards McClafferty, Produced by Mr.McClafferty) has completed a Workshop at the Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Also on Spellbound Pictures Ltd. slate is the song, SILENT SOLDIERS, just released, sung by American Idol finalist, Rudy Cardenas, paying tribute to the Veterans of the "greatest generation to the latest generation" for the American Veterans Centers.
Mark is a member of Who's Who in America and Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership honor society founded in 1914 to recognize achievement in scholarship, campus/community service and the performing arts. [13]
Coming to America is a 1988 American romantic comedy film directed by John Landis and based on a story originally created by Eddie Murphy, who also stars in the lead role. The film also co-stars Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley, and John Amos. The film was released in the United States on June 29, 1988. Eddie Murphy plays Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of the fictional African nation of Zamunda who travels to the United States in the hopes of finding a woman he can marry and will love him for who he is, not for his status or for having been trained to please him.
Harve Bennett was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.
Brandon Tartikoff was an American television executive who was head of the entertainment division of NBC from 1981 to 1991. He was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with several hit series: Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Law & Order, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, The Golden Girls, Wings, Miami Vice, Knight Rider, The A-Team, Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, St. Elsewhere, and Night Court.
William Boyett was an American actor best known for his roles in law enforcement dramas on television from the 1950s through the 1990s.
John Andrew Davis is an American film producer and founder of Davis Entertainment.
Jesse Frederick James Conaway is an American film and television composer and singer. He wrote and performed the themes to TGIF television shows such as Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step for ABC.
Miller-Boyett Productions is an American television production company that mainly developed television sitcoms from the 1970s through the 1990s. It was responsible for family-oriented hit series such as Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, The Hogan Family, Bosom Buddies, Full House, Perfect Strangers, Family Matters and Step by Step.
Omicron Delta Kappa (ΟΔΚ), also known as The Circle and ODK, is an honor society located in the United States with chapters at more than 300 college campuses. It was founded December 3, 1914, at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, by 15 student and faculty leaders. The society recognizes achievement in five areas: scholarship; athletics; campus and community service, social or religious activities, and campus government; journalism, speech and the mass media; and creative and performing arts. Some circles of ΟΔΚ are quasi-secret, in that newly selected members remain undisclosed for some time.
Laurence Mark is an American film and television producer. His works include The Greatest Showman (2017), Julie & Julia (2009), Dreamgirls (2006), I, Robot (2004), As Good as It Gets (1997), and Jerry Maguire (1996).
The Royal Family is an American sitcom television series that ran on CBS between September 18, 1991, and May 13, 1992. The series was created by executive producer Eddie Murphy, as part of a development deal Murphy had with CBS, and produced by David Garber, Shelley Jensen, Deborah Leschin, Leslie Ray, and David Steven Simon. Other executive producers alongside Eddie Murphy are Mark McClafferty and Greg Antonacci. It was presented by Eddie Murphy Television in association with Paramount Television, the television arm of Paramount Pictures, a Paramount Communications Company, with which Murphy had long been associated. The series starred Redd Foxx and Della Reese.
Jeffrey Chernov is an American film producer, unit production manager and executive.
The Family Man is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 11, 1990, to July 17, 1991. The series, starring Gregory Harrison, was created by William Bickley and Michael Warren, who also served as executive producers with Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett. Martha Williamson served as supervising producer, with Ross Brown as co-executive producer. In addition to being produced by Lorimar Television and Miller-Boyett Productions, the show was also under the Catalina Television marque.
Spellbound Pictures Ltd., USA LLC is a film and television production and distribution company founded by Mark McClafferty and Pamela Edwards McClafferty in 1996.
Paramount Animation is an American animation studio, serving as the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount Global. The division was founded on July 6, 2011, following the box office success of Paramount's own Rango and the end of their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2012.
A Thousand Words is a 2012 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed and co-produced by Brian Robbins from a script by Steve Koren, co-produced by Nicolas Cage, and starring Eddie Murphy. It was released in theaters on March 9, 2012, four years after it was filmed. Critics panned the film as formulaic and outdated, and for miscasting Eddie Murphy in a mostly silent role. It is currently one of a small number of films with a 0% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It was also a box office bomb, having grossed just $22 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. As of 2023, it is the last film directed by Robbins, as he would move on into a career as a media executive, ultimately leading to a role as chief executive officer of what became by then Paramount Global by 2022. It would ultimately also be Murphy's last film appearance four years, until he appeared in the 2016 independent film Mr. Church.
Joey McFarland is an American film producer and the founder of McFarland Entertainment, a content development and production company for both film and television. He was previously vice chairman of Red Granite Pictures.
The first and original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006, due to the Viacom split.
